Pictures from Christmas

Tom and Dono waiting for Jenna to finish making breakfast so we could open our presents.

All the presents under the tree. Front view, then back view.


Donovan's favorite part of unwrapping. The bows.

What is better than one bow? Two bows!

Dono checking out his new Lion scooter thingy. His favorite part of the Lion? Eating his hair. (It's fleece and at the very top of the Lion's head incase you were wondering what I am talking about)

"Thanks Grandma and Grandpa B! I love it!"

Donovan watching his daddy play his present- his grandfather's refurbished guitar.

Testing out the Lion with Auntie Jenna's help.

Family picture in our sleepers. Tom and I both got these this year specifically for Christmas morning. I slept in mine but Tom wimped out claiming he would be "too hot". Grinch.


We tried to get a picture of Donovan sitting nicely infront of Tom's parent's tree. This was the best we could get.

Donovan and his Great Grandma Q and his Great Aunt Pat.

This one I just posted because his face cracks me up.

On Christmas night, on several occasions, Donovan would rest his head on his hand just like this for a few seconds. I snapped the picture right before he was changing position so I could have gotten a better one but you get the idea. It is so cute!

These two are from the day after Christmas. Donovan's favorite toy is this play table that his Uncle Nick bought him. He loves crawling over to it, pulling himself up on it and slapping all the buttons that make sounds. I love his face in the second picture, it sums up how much he loves the table perfectly!

Our favorite present

We had a wonderful Christmas. Donovan was well behaved and liked all his toys, and even more exciting, let us sleep in until 8am! No 5 or 6 am feedings! What a lovely boy. And even better, he seems to have finally gotten over his cold. My sister spent the night Christmas eve so we all got up when Donovan did and started our Christmas morning. My sister made an egg casserole and then we opened up presents while it cooked. I think this should be a new tradition. Present opening went smoothly and Donovan's favorite part by far were the bows we put on his larger presents. He thought the bow was the present. Remind me of that when we have our next child. Right about the time we woke up it began to snow! So we were lucky enough to have Donovan's first Christmas be a white Christmas. The one bummer about this Christmas was that my parents weren't able to be here with us. Sad. But they were at home safe, so if they couldn't be with us, at least they were not driving here in the bad weather. Next year will be different hopefully.

Christmas eve we hosted my dad's side of the family for our Christmas celebration. Donovan was a little on the crabby side, but I think he was mostly overwhelmed. He was so excited for the present opening, that as soon as we started he decided to poop out of his diaper. Lovely. Oh well, the life of a baby. After a quick outfit change and clean up, Donovan spent the rest of the present opening time crawling from person to person and trying to eat their ribbon &/or bows. He was so exhausted that he went to sleep at 8pm that night. A full hour earlier then most nights.

After Christmas morning at our house, Tom, Donovan and I bundled up and headed to Tom's parents house so we could do our gift exchange and spend time with them. Donovan was much less crabby that day so that was nice. We exchanged gifts, then visited with Tom's grandma, his Aunt Pat and her friend Margaret (who is pretty much an "honorary" aunt). During dinner Donovan tried his first taste of Cheerios. We are not big cereal eaters so we have yet to buy him some but he loved them so we will be making that purchase soon.

My favorite part of the whole day was back at our house though. We headed home early Christmas evening to unwind and let Donovan try to have somewhat of a normal night after all the excitement of the last 24 hours. Tom and I were trying to unpack and organize all our goodies and Donovan was just crawling around. We would look at him occasionally to make sure he was not doing anything he shouldn't be, but for the most part he was roaming around, exploring without us hovering over him. Well at some point he was crawling into the kitchen and I looked down and he looked like this.


It was just the sweetest thing. I asked Tom if he put that on Donovan's back and he said that he did not. So in crawling around, he somehow got the bow squarely in the middle of his back, sticky side down, just as if someone had placed it there. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it now because I felt like God placed it there to remind us what is most important in life. Donovan is the best present that we have ever been given. He is such a vibrant, fun kid and I feel so blessed that we get to be his parents. A healthy, happy child is such a blessing and I never want to take that for granted. So when I saw him crawling around with the bow on his back I was like "That is right. You are my favorite present".

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

8 months old

Donovan doing his impression of a monkey.


Happy belated 8 month birthday to the Dom-bin man! This past month of Donovan's life was a very exciting one. He went from just a little mobile, to full out speed crawling. It is nice in most ways as he is happier now that he can get where he wants to go. It is not nice in that where he wants to go, is often somewhere we do not want him (in a pile of electrical cords, dog food/water bowls...). So we have had to baby proof the house, but it is a hard thing to do with such a curious baby. Now that he has mastered crawling, he has started pulling up on things. Mostly people and our ottoman. It is so sweet when he crawls over to you and climbs up on you and pulls himself into your arms. There is nothing better. Here are some shots of him pulling himself up on the ottoman.





In other news, we are pretty much done breastfeeding. I have mixed feelings about this but I know it is time. Donovan was not getting enough milk from me anymore and he is too busy to spend so much time eating. When he breastfeeds it usually takes about 20 minutes. Meanwhile he can slam a 7 oz bottle in 3 minutes if he is so inclined. He also likes to look around when he eats and that is a lot easier to do when he has a bottle in his mouth that we can follow his head around with. The past few days I have only been doing the morning feeding and he does not seem to mind so we might continue to do that one until he gets to busy for it and then I will be completely done breastfeeding. I wish I could have done it a little longer, but I am proud that we made it 8 months.

Most of the other new stuff I talked about in the last update since I knew I would probably be preoccupied with Christmas stuff when he turned 8 months old. So for any other news, read that previous post.

These following are some cute pictures that Tom took last week. Donovan has found some of Petey's toys that Petey has barely touched and has claimed them as his own. One was a ball that Petey got a few Christmases ago. Well, actually he got two, one said "naughty" and one said "nice". Guess which one Donovan chose to chew on. Is he trying to tell us something?

Crazy hair night

This is what Donovan looks like after daddy gives him a bath. Ok, really it was just this once and Tom did not brush his hair on purpose but it is still silly.

Lately

Donovan has been quite the mover and shaker nowadays. Now that he can crawl, he has decided that he needs to explore everywhere and taste everything. (I mean everything- air vents, rugs, electrical cords, shoes, dog food, etc.) And man is he fast! I will be making something in the kitchen and he is on his blanket, then 20 seconds later I hear him in the dining room and then another 20 seconds goes by and he is by the front door. To anyone who has not been to our house, it is a pretty long way. I would say a quarter mile in baby length. Also, for those of you that have been to our house, you maybe thinking "The front door is right next to the basement stairs, please tell me you are not letting that child crawl around unsupervised around the stairs." Well rest assured people (mom and dad) we have installed a very sturdy gate at the top of the stairs so we are definitely breathing easier now.

Now that he is such an expert crawler he has set his sights much higher. He is now pulling up all over the place. His favorite things to pull himself up on are our ottoman and his mommy and daddy. He thinks that we are there for his playing entertainment. We are to be used as his ladder, trampoline, chair, it varies really, whatever he is feeling at the moment. Ever since he began crawling he has been back to his happy self. The 2 plus weeks of crabby Donovan was just when he wanted to be crawling but wasn't quite there yet. Happy Donovan is 1,000 times more fun than crabby Donovan so I hope that happy Donovan is here to stay.

On a health note poor Donovan has a cold. He had his first official cold a little more than a month ago. It consisted of a little bit of sneezing and a lot of snot but thankfully not much else. However, it lingered FOREVER! It lasted 2 and a half weeks. Then one day it was gone and he was better. Then the next day I heard some congestion, the next day more and the day after that, BAM! Worse cold. So we were cold free for one day then walloped with a worse one. That one really hit hard this past Monday so we are now 5 days into it and there is no sign of it going away any time soon. I am hoping that is goes away before Christmas, but I am not holding my breath, that is for sure. This time there is just a little bit of sneezing, but a ton of congestion and nasty snot. He does not act like it bothers him, that is until you have to wipe his nose. Then he screams and thrashes around like he is being murdered. I fear that if I wipe his nose in public, someone might call child services on me for child abuse strictly as a result of hearing his reaction. And poor baby has such a red nose and red cheeks from all the wiping and snot. I have been putting Vaseline on his checks, nose and above his lip for the last few nights before he goes to bed and it seems to be helping a little.

To end this post on a good note Donovan is also quite the giggler lately. He loves to be bounced, spun, thrown in the air, and pretend dropped. Anything dare devilish, he loves and laughs, laughs, laughs. We love it!

Oh and here are some pictures of what Donovan has been doing lately...
Playing with doggy toys. In his defense, they do look a lot like his toys.


And playing (and attempting to sample) Petey's food.


Since this picture was taken we have relocated Petey's food and water to a more secure location. Donovan found that location today. Dang.

Little rocker dude and his parents

We Have A Crawler!

This past Saturday our little man finally figured out how to move his arms and legs at the same time to get from here to there! He's crawling! Since he's discovered how to get himself around he's been much happier and mom and dad have been much more tired. Don't let this video fool you, he really only cares about things that are not his toys, i.e. the air registers, shoes and his very favorite, Petey's food.

I (tom) got a new digital video camera from my parents for my birthday so there are many more videos of our special little boy to come!

Teething biscut

Donovan: "Mmmm, these are good."
Mom: "Wow, those are messy."

All fours

Tom managed to get some video of Donovan up on all fours and rocking the other day. It is a little dark but still cute. Enjoy!

7 months old

"Here I am, look how big I am getting!"

"Hmmm, that paper looks appetizing."

Nom, nom, nom.

"Almost done."

"Do I have anything on my face?"


Wow, we have come so far in this past month! The biggest changes in this past month have definitely been with Donovan's physical abilities. As mentioned several weeks ago Donovan has mastered sitting and is now an expert! But he was not satisfied to just stay sitting. He is now getting up on all fours (hands and knees) and rocking back and forth. He started this about a week ago and does it with ease now. It won't be long before he is crawling, which is going to be a big wake up call to us as we haven't baby proofed a thing. Yikes!

In other news this past few weeks Donovan has been very fussy and clingy. He starts yelling if you leave the room and he can't see you, and he wants to be held the majority of the time. What happened to our sweet, happy all the time baby? I think the fussy part is due to the fact that he is realizing that he isn't as mobile as he wants to be so he is frustrated that he can't get from here to there as fast as he wants. I am hoping that the fussiness subsides when he becomes a crawler. This is a picture I took of Donovan yelling at me for not holding him.

As of a week and a half ago we are no longer doing any overnight feedings. I finally was ready to be done with them. He still wakes up overnight, but I let him cry himself back to sleep, which he seems to do in less and less time every night. So overall he now sleeps (read: stays in bed at least) from 9-9:30 until at least 6:30. If he wakes for a feeding around 6:30 he will go back down until 9ish but he generally wakes up sometime in the 8 o'clock hour and starts his day after that feeding.

For solid meals, we are still doing just two main meals a day, with a third one sprinkled in every once in a while when he acts like he needs one. He generally eats better in the evenings but he is doing better at eating well in the mornings recently. We try to get him to eat 2 tbs cereal and a whole container of fruit in the mornings, which he has been doing wonderfully at these past few days. In the evening, he eats at least 2 tbs cereal and a container of veggies and then sometimes more fruit. Last night he ate 1 tub of veggies, his 2 tbs of cereal and a whole tub of fruit! That is a lot of food! We have also introduced finger foods as of about 3 weeks ago. We give him these tiny puffs of cereal and he was not a big fan until last night. Up until last night he would pick them up, bring them to his mouth, then throw his hand over the side of the highchair and drop them overboard. Then we would try to put one in his mouth and he would clamp his mouth shut or just move around so it was hard to hit our target. At one sitting, he would at most eat 2 puffs with our help, but he definitely didn't like it and thought the texture was weird. He has only successfully eaten 2 puffs that he got in his mouth on his own. Last night we had a breakthrough. I would put a puff in his mouth, he would chew it and eat it and then open his mouth for more. This has NEVER happened before! He ended up eating about 15 puffs last night so I think the persistence has paid off! I am interested to see if he likes them again today or last night was just a freak occurrence.

One last thing worth mentioning that you may have noticed from the first group of pictures in this post is that Donovan is a big fan of paper products for playing and eating purposes. That being said, he LOVES getting the mail, as it is like a trip to the toy isle for him. He just rips and chews magazines, paper, pamphlets to his little heart's desire. I figure if he actually swallows a little piece it is just a little fiber to help things move along.

A few weeks ago a friend of our family had her Bat Mitzvah and we were lucky enough to be invited to attend. My parents came in town for the event and here are some pictures of us looking nice and dressed up.



Donovan also got his first shoulder ride from Grandpa during the weekend they were in town. He loved it!


Poor Donovan. I bought him some jeans and I wanted to try them on him to make sure I got the right size. Well apparently I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been when I put them on because after they were all the way up, I realized that they were so tight because I had both legs in one of the pant leg. Silly mama. At least we know he would make a cute mermaid (merman).


Oh there's that other leg of the pants. We will try to use that one too next time we wear them :)


Overall this past month has been a very fun month to watch Donovan grow. I just hope he takes it easy on us this next month since it will probably be our last month of relative calm before the mobility storm!

Bath Time in the New Tub!

Here's a short video of Donovan splish-splashing in his new inflatable tub with all of his frineds!

Baby Baldknobber

Several years ago Tom and I took a short vacation to Branson MO and had a great time! I have such fond memories of going there as a kid and I cannot wait to go back and spend some more time there with Donovan. Anyone that has been to Branson knows that there are lots of shows down there, and many of them include characters known as "baldknobbers". Basically they are hillbillies with no teeth that "mash" their face up as Tom says, so they look even more hillbilly then they normally would. Tom and I got such a kick out of all of the billboards with baldknobbers on them on the drive to Branson and then all of the commercials you see down there with a gummy hillbilly looking man. So the term "baldknobber" is thrown around in this house very often. Now Donovan does not close his mouth often, but when he does we laugh and think that he looks like he is auditioning for the role of baby baldknobber. Until today we have been unable to capture it on film but during breakfast this morning our luck changed! Last night and this morning Donovan has been spending a fair amount of time sucking on him bottom lip, thus creating the perfect baldknobber look. Behold!




And my absolute favorite...

It's even cuter in person.